Kolkata Knight Riders brought back off-spinner Sunil Narine in the Indian Premier League match against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday. Narine had missed the first three games for KKR, and the franchise had lost two out of their three games so far. But with Wankhede surface expected to help the spinners, Narine was called back in for Shakib al Hasan.
KKR also decided to leave out veteran bowler Harbhajan Singh and fast bowler Kamlesh Nagarkoti was included in the Playing XI.
Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings also made one change in the match, with allrounder Dwayne Bravo being rested and pacer Lungi Ngidi getting his first game of the season.
"We are going to bowl. On this ground it seems to be the fashion and more successful, change of ground and different vibe for us and hopefully change of fortunes for us as well. We are looking forward to it. It (bit of grass) certainly pleases the international players," KKR captain Eoin Morgan said at the toss.
"It is normally a very good wicket here and the majority of the games have been competitive. Chennai are obviously a strong team and we are hoping to build on the start of our campaign. A fresh mindset, over time chasing in Chennai hasn't been productive at all for anybody and chasing at Wankhede is productive. Hopefully it is a change for fortune for us. Harbhajan Singh misses out and Kamlesh Nagarkoti comes in. We have another change, Sunil Narine comes in for Shakib," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"It is normally a very good wicket here and the majority of the games have been competitive. Chennai are obviously a strong team and we are hoping to build on the start of our campaign. A fresh mindset, over time chasing in Chennai hasn't been productive at all for anybody and chasing at Wankhede is productive. Hopefully it is a change for fortune for us. Harbhajan Singh misses out and Kamlesh Nagarkoti comes in. We have another change, Sunil Narine comes in for Shakib," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"Looks similar. But will be tacky and we have to be watchful in the first few overs. There was less dew and the spinners could bowl freely. We get too much dew then the lengths are quite different. We have rested Bravo for this game and Ngidi comes in," Dhoni added.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar